Monday, September 20, 2004

The Iraqi adventure.

What does Mr. Novak know about Iraq and the decision makers in the USA? If his information about how decision makers in America are thinking, is similar to his information about Iraq, then I guess we are safe and there’s no need to worry.

I couldn’t help wondering after reading this article that he wrote recently, could it be true? Can the American administration be this stupid?! Or is it that some people in the white house are worried about their political future and do not want to invest too much in the Iraqi issue? Are the terrorist really winning? they don’t seem to be the majority to us, Iraqis! Should we forget everything about freedom and democracy? Was Iraq just an adventure?? Or is this man just blinded by wishful thinking?

It’s not just that I do not want to believe Mr. Novak, but I seriously question if he understands how serious the war against terrorists and extremists in Iraq is. He seems to think that it was a nice dream and an adventure that America can walk out on just like that to avoid more losses. He, as well as many "anti-war" people, do not understand how the war to topple Saddam and establish democracy in Iraq can be a part of the war on terror. I do believe, however, that the American official are not that stupid to deal so lightly with such a critical issue.

Iraq is not an adventure. Toppling Saddam was never the main reason for the war and should never be thought of as this. Removing Saddam could’ve been done 13 years ago by just preventing him from using his helicopters in the uprising. It could’ve been done also by deploying the Iraqi opposition groups into the north, which together with the Peshmerga and with air support from the coalition could’ve done the job. It could’ve been done through a military coup planned by the CIA or the M.I.6. After all, Saddam regime proved to be much weaker than it looked. It certainly didn’t need hundreds of thousands of coalition soldiers and all this massive power. Besides, if it was the main reason, then why didn’t the American troops pull out of Iraq soon after doing it?

The task of liberating Iraq and establishing democracy in it is nothing like any limited war America had fought before. It’s as serious as WW1 and WW2, and even more serious than the cold war. Anyone who thinks that America can pull out and be settled with toppling Saddam and stopping his WMDs project proves to be shortsighted, the least to say.

But I’m not going to discus the shallowness of such pattern of thinking here. I’ll just try to explore the psychology behind it. It seems that Mr. Novak says what most of the MSM and the people who oppose the American presence in Iraq are saying lately as a new approach to the Iraqi issue by stating that it was not all wrong but the expectations were higher than what they should’ve been, and therefore we should pull out now. It seems that they see it this way:

We have a country ruled by a mad dictator who keep trying to produce WMDs, so our government should move and remove him. We can try while we are there to establish a democracy, as it seems like a nice idea and worth trying. First because fanatic Muslims may try to fill the power gap, and second to make the war on terror more easy to win by depriving the terrorists of what used to be a safe heaven for them once and a source of funds, and to form a model for democracy in Iraq that attracts the people of other Muslim and Arab nations and encourage them to topple dictatorships in their countries or at least change their ways of thinking in a way that makes them reject terrorism and dictatorship, and prefer the western model for a state.

Alas, it was a beautiful dream but it remains just a dream. The possibility of success in establishing democracy in Iraq or anywhere in the ME is almost negligible.

This is of course not the administration fault directly (although they are mistaken in their previous judgment) otherwise it could be corrected. It’s the fault of the Iraqi people, or let’s say it’s just their nature. These people do not believe in democracy and freedom. They want a dictator like Saddam and they already miss him. That’s what many of them have said on TV. They are also mainly extremist religious people who prefer a theocracy to a democracy. We should be reasonable and respect their wishes. They are stupid ignorant fanatics and we should respect that! Anyone who tries to argue this and help these people to change their lives prove that he doesn’t respect their stupid sick culture. Who are we to decide what the others want, as obviously Muslims and Arabs are different from the rest of human beings? How stupid it is to believe that they are like us; peaceful and reasonable people! They are Arabs and Muslims for God’s sake! When were Arab or Muslims ever civilized people?

We should pull out now. As for how to combat terrorism, how to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or any future government in Iraq from doing exactly what Saddam was doing, for how to face the terrorist-funding organizations in Saudi Arabia and the ME . . . well, it seems very difficult after pulling out from Iraq, but let’s not worry about that now!

I look at such theory and then I watch TV and it seems convincing. Only I want freedom and democracy and so do most of my friends and relatives, and the vast majority of Iraqis I’ve known all my life. So do hundreds of thousands of IP, ING members, hundreds of political organizations and millions of Iraqis who are defending the American administration’s dream (you know, because we can’t have a dream!), and who wait anxiously for the upcoming elections. Are we not Arabs and Muslims? Or were we brainwashed by the American propaganda to believe that their dream was ours?

NO Mr. Novak, you are WRONG and I’m being very nice here. This is not an adventure and this is not a neo-conservative dream. This is OUR dream. The dream of millions of oppressed Iraqis who saw what dictatorship can do and who were dying to witness a moment of freedom, to live a peaceful life, a life that carries hope and make dreams not that impossible, a life similar to yours, or is it too much to hope for? We had this dream before anyone heard about neo -conservatives.

I don’t believe what you say about the American administration Mr. Novak, but even if you were right, you can give up on your dream. We won’t give up on ours, and may God help us.